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The new book centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. At the same time, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par